This invention relates to a metal cladding which encloses all components of a wooden door jamb and which provides an exterior insulative space between the components and cladding which can be filled with insulative material.
Exterior wooden door jambs manufactured for residential dwellings are subject to damage from moisture, ultra-violet radiation and from accidental causes. Such damage may result in a reduction of thermal efficiency around the door and jamb, thus requiring the home owner the expense and inconvenience associated with the repair or replacement of such damaged doors. In the past, to increase the durability and resistance to environmental elements of such wooden door jamb components they have been manufactured with a thin cladding of vinyl, aluminum or other suitable material such as seen illustrated in FIG. 1a, a view taken from U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,880 discussed below. Such covering material when secured to wood jamb components protects the underlying frame from damage but does not address the concerns of thermal insulation around the jamb.
Applicant is aware of U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,880, which discloses cladding material which is placed in contact with the door jamb components and secured thereto by a combination of screws, double-side tape and grooves or keys formed in the wooden door jamb components. The jamb components are engageable by inwardly projecting fins integrally formed with the cladding. The prior art, since the cladding is in contact with the door jamb, has insignificant affect on its thermal resistance.
It is an object of the present invention to provide cladding components which when secured to wooden door jamb components maintains a substantially continuous void between the jamb and the surrounding cladding, which can be filled with expanding foam insulative material. Further, in the present invention the cladding components are secured to wooden door jamb components so as to substantially avoid or minimize thermal conductivity through the jamb. Further, the cladding components of the present invention may have formed at locations where further thermal sealing is normally required, serrations for frictionally securing weather stripping or the like. Further, cladding of the present invention may be manufactured from aluminum having a wall thickness which adds significantly to the structural strength of the jamb, thereby, permitting a corresponding decrease in the thickness of the wooden components and an associated cost savings during manufacture.
In summary, the insulating cladding for wooden door frames of the present invention includes a rigid, generally planar, rectangular first sheet, at least one rigid sheet spacer mounted along, so as to protrude from, a first long edge of the first sheet, and a generally xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d-shaped first channel formed along a second long edge of the first sheet, where the second long edge is opposite the first long edge. The first channel opens towards the sheet spacer so as to define a cavity therebetween and along the length of the first sheet. The first channel is sized so as to fit over, as an end cap on, an exposed long edge of a door frame member such as a door jamb or a center frame member of for example a double width door when so fitted, a distal side wall of the first channel, distal from the first sheet, is mated to a first side of the exposed long edge of the door frame member. The first channel includes a channel spacer protruding into the cavity.
The sheet spacer is mountable flush against a second side of the door frame member, the second side of the door frame member opposite the first side of the door frame member. This is to maintain the cavity substantially air-imperviously sealed around the door frame member when the insulating cladding is mounted to the door frame member. When so mounted the channel spacer and the sheet spacer respectively maintain the base of the channel and the first sheet spaced from the exposed long edge of the door frame member and the second side of the door frame member respectively.
Where the door frame member is a door jamb the channel spacer is the distal side wall of the first channel, adapted to be mountable to the first side of the door frame member. For example, the distal side wall may be notched to snugly mount against the exposed long edge of the door frame member and, contiguously, the first side of the door frame member.
In one embodiment, the base of the first channel may be generally perpendicular to the first sheet, and a second channel may be formed in the base. The second channel may open in oppositely disposed relation to the first channel for receiving in locking engagement in the second channel a locking member of an elongate moulding. Again, where the door frame member is a door jamb, the insulating cladding may further comprise the elongate moulding, wherein the elongate moulding is sized to cover an airspace between the door jamb and an adjacent wall frame member. Such a moulding may also be insulating, for example it may be hollow to create an insulating air space or filled with a commercial insulating material.
In one embodiment the sheet spacer may be a rigid flange extending rigidly from the first sheet. The rigid flange may form, with the first long edge of the first sheet, a third channel, wherein the third channel is in opposed facing relation to the first channel. A side wall of the third channel, opposite the first long edge, may be adapted for fastening by a fastener to the second side of the door frame member. The rigid flange may extend the length of the first long edge of the first sheet so as to seal the cavity against the door frame member. The one sheet spacer may also include a second rigid flange extending rigidly from the first sheet and parallel to, and spaced from the first rigid flange. The second rigid flange may form a fourth channel in opposed facing relation to the first channel.
Where the door frame member is a center member of a door frame for a double width door for example, the insulating cladding further comprises a second sheet which, like the first sheet, is a rigid, generally planar, rectangular sheet. The second sheet is parallel to the first sheet. A second sheet spacer is mounted along a first edge of the second sheet. The second sheet is rigidly mounted to the side wall of the channel, referred to above as the distal side wall, along a second edge of the second sheet opposite the first edge of the second sheet. The second sheet spacer is flush mounts to the first side of the door frame member when the insulating cladding is mounted to the door frame member. The second sheet and the second sheet spacer define, with the first channel, a second cavity in opposed facing relation to the first cavity. The second sheet spacer may be a rigid flange extending rigidly from the second sheet. This rigid flange may also form a channel in opposed facing relation to the first channel. In this case, the channel spacer may be at least one channel flange extending between the base of the channel and the exposed long edge of the door frame member. The channel flange may extend perpendicularly to the base of the channel so as to engage the exposed long edge of the door frame member when the insulating cladding is mounted on the exposed long edge.